strange thing, me seemed, to see a beast so wild.

[samatethecookie]

When you see this post, post your favorite poem in your journal.

I'm tied between a few poems. I don't have a specific favorite, so I'm going to post two that I really like at the moment.

First, Like As A Huntsman" by Edmund Spenser.


Like as a huntsman after weary chase,
Seeing the game from him escaped away,
Sits down to rest him in some shady place
With panting hounds beguiled of their prey;
So, after long pursuit and vain assay,
When I all weary had the chase forsook,
The gentle deer returned the selfsame way,
Seeking to quench her thirst at the next brook.
There she, beholding me with milder look,
Sought not to fly, but fearless still did bide,
Till I in hand her yet half trembling took,
And with her own goodwill her firmly tied.
Strange thing, me seemed, to see a beast so wild
So goodly won, and with her own will beguiled.


Now, "What I Learned from My Mother" by Julia Kasdorf.


I learned from my mother how to love
the living, to have plenty of vases on hand
in case you have to rush to the hospital
with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants
still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars
large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole
grieving household, to cube home-canned pears
and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins
and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point.
I learned to attend viewings even if I didn't know
the deceased, to press the moist hands
of the living, to look into their eyes and offer
sympathy, as though I understood loss even then.
I learned that whatever we say means nothing,
what anyone will remember is that we came.
I learned to believe that I had the power to ease
awful pains materially like an angel.
Like a doctor, I learned to create
from another's suffering my own usefulness, and once
you know how to do this, you can never refuse.
To every house you enter, you must offer
healing: a chocolate cake you baked yourself,
the blessing of your voice, your chaste touch.